Friday 6 February 2009

When the cat's away...

What a week this has been! My husband, who has been unemployed for seven months, had a week-long temporary job. I love that man dearly, but I find it hard to keep a good house with him around 24/7.

A week without him has left my house mother-in-law ready. It's that clean.

The kitchen is scrubbed, clean (including the inside of my toaster) and completely reorganized. I feel like I have so much extra room in there now! I even tackled the top of my fridge.

Before:


After:


I sorted through the boy's toy baskets, tossing out all the miscellaneous "stuff" that had collected in there. Even though his baskets were suddenly much emptier, he has rediscovered all of his favourite toys and been playing with them much more often. Less is, indeed, often more.

I *coughputawaytheChristmasdecorationscough*, but we won't talk about that. Because it's February. And ow, my pride.

I cleaned and reorganized and tidied and cleaned some more. I have this odd desire to dance around my house now.

And the boy and I! We had so much fun.

I made a batch of playdough using a recipe a friend had given me. He played with this frequently and for nice long stretches of time, which I took full advantage of to get more cleaning done (and some web surfing...and some playdough playing...because who can resist playdoh?). I made a playdoh snowman, which the boy insisted needed a hat - so a hat was made. I give you, Cowboy Playdohman:



And Cowboy Playdohman after a few modifications done by said boy:



We played with bubbles (while Mommy washed the dishes).



We went outside! In the snow! For hours!



We walked to the produce market and picked up all sorts of wonderful fruits and veggies (and the obligatory yogurt, which the boy would eat several times a day if I let him). We tried our very first blood orange, which, though the name has always turned me off, was very good. We bought bananas, battered though they tend to be in the winter, with plans to make banana muffins in a couple days.



I hate to sound so giddy about having my darling husband out of the house for a few days - but seven months! You can't blame a girl, really.

Kool-Aid Playdough

2 1/2 cups Flour
1/2 cup salt
2 small packages of Kool-Aid
3 tablespoons of oil
2 cups boiling water

1. Mix flour, salt, oil and kool-aid until blended
2. Add boiling water, mix with spoon until cool enough to knead, knead until colour is well mixed
3. Store in air tight container or bag in the fridge.

8 comments:

  1. the play dough looks like fun! I've very impresed with your snowman.


    And nice top of fridge! :D haha.

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  2. No you really can't blame a girl. When my husband was home for a week after Peter's birth I just about went crazy.

    I bet it feels nice to have everything clean and tidy! It looks like Jacob was a super helper, too. :)

    I'm going to have to try the playdough with Hannah.

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  3. No you can't blame a girl. That's what work was created for, to get husbands from underfoot. Every break between the semesters drives me a bit nutty, because Franklin is always at home, making messes.

    That play dough recipe looks awesome. I'll have to save that for when my nephew is big enough to play with it, or heck even my own kids ;)

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  4. Your fridge top looks nice. It's always a great feeling to have a clean house. It looks like you and Jacob had a blast.

    One question for you about the playdough....does the salt completely set in the Kool-Aid? I mean it doesn't make your hands turn colors does it?

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  5. Can't wait to try the play-doh recipe! Thanks : ) Isn't it nice to get things really good and clean?! Great job!

    I came across your blog from The Mother Letters Project blog. I know this is silly...but my daughter is in the Leelou Blogs cute baby photo contest and I am trying to spread the word for people to vote for her!! I need HUNDREDS of votes for her to even come close to catching up to the front-runners. I have been trying to figure out where to find hundreds of people, and I didn't think it was approriate to ask Seth to post something so silly on The Mother Letters Blog (obviously), but I figured maybe all the people who helped with the project would be willing to go give my little Makenzie from AZ a vote : ) If not, that's ok too. I am just trying to get creative and reach more people! If you'd like to help me by voting for Makenzie, please go to http://www.leeloublogs.blogspot.com/ and spread the word for others to vote as well : )

    EVEN MORE IMPORTANTLY THOUGH...I am also recruiting prayer warriors for a tiny little miracle baby named Kayleigh Freeman, maybe you've heard of her and are already praying for her. It was through her blog that I heard about the contest in the first place. Even if you don't take the time to vote for Makenzie, please take a minute to visit HER website: http://www.kayleighannefreeman.blogspot.com/ and say a prayer for this sweet girl!

    THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME!!!

    Sincerely,
    Daniele Brown

    PS- THE MOTHER LETTERS PROJECT is in NO WAY associated with this request other than the fact that I found your blog there!!

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  6. no, you can't blame a girl at all!! LOL!!

    Such cute pics!! Can't wait to try that playdoh recipe.. can you believe I still haven't?!! LOL!! Will get on that this week/weekend! LOL!!
    Hugs!

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  7. OMGOSH! I think we left a comment on each other's blogs at the EXACT same time?!! too funny!

    HUGS!

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  8. Melody, no, the playdoh doesn't stain your hands at all! I was surprised, actually - I fully expected to have purple hands after making it. But no, there wasn't the least bit of staining - there is a really great grape Koolaid smell though!

    Trace, LOL, I noticed that too! I clicked post on my comment in your blog, and immediately a notification came up to say you'd left a comment in mine!! Too funny.

    ReplyDelete